


For Every Sign I Recognize

by stardustedknuckles



Series: The Hunter's Moon is Shining [2]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: But mostly fluff, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, F/F, Fluff, Light Angst, October Prompt Challenge, Vaguely Modern AU, Werewolf AU, Werewolf!yasha, allusions to past abuse, part of my vague series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-29
Updated: 2020-10-29
Packaged: 2021-03-09 03:27:21
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,527
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27257923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stardustedknuckles/pseuds/stardustedknuckles
Summary: It's been a few months since the dog in Beau's woods turned into a woman she had kind of a huge crush on. Things are great, they're figuring things out bit by bit. Today, they're going to solve a cosmetic issue that's been requiring much in the way of Jester's talents, and Beau has to confront a couple of her own fears. To be fair, it's a little hard to get too worked up in Pumat Sol's shop.Prompt/kink/CRInktober day 28: Supernatural/multiples/shopkeep
Relationships: Beauregard Lionett/Yasha
Series: The Hunter's Moon is Shining [2]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2017664
Comments: 8
Kudos: 106





	For Every Sign I Recognize

**Author's Note:**

> Yeah so I'm going to need to give this series a title, it looks like. I love this werewolf AU and I love the whole world of it I've got in my head. I'll get on that after I eat. But first! Find out how I managed to pull feelings into a clothes shopping trip. (It makes more sense if you've read the first werewolf fic but for ease of reference I've added a couple notes at the bottom for clarification.)

The bell above the door to the Invulnerable Vagrant chimed cheerfully as its newest customers of the day scurried inside to savor the warmth and stillness that greeted them after their brisk walk.

"Fuck it's cold out there," said Beau.

"Yes," Caleb agreed. "That is generally why those of us without bloodlines suited to the weather invented sleeves."

"Don't need em," Beau said. "I've got - where'd they go?"

Caleb jerked a thumb to the counter, where Jester was already leaning over to call into the back. Yasha trailed behind her, hand in hers. She waved apologetically to them as Jester said, "Helloooo! Pumats?"

Beau heard a shuffle of footsteps, and then the curtain on the right ruffled and admitted one of the familiar faces of the shop's owner. His face broke into a wide, slow grin as he took in Jester and the three with her.

"Oh well hello, Jester," he greeted warmly. He nodded to Beau and Caleb as they approached. "I see you've brought some of your friends with you, and a new one too." Yasha waved somewhat shyly.

"This is Yasha," Jester said. "And we need some magic clothes."

Pumat blinked slowly. "You mean like the kind you never have to wash, or?"

"No, like-" Beau paused. "Wait. You have that? That's a thing?"

Caleb cut in firmly. "We are in need of a very specific enchantment. Are we your only guests at the moment?"

Pumat looked around. "Just me, myself, and I," he said. "And Prime, of course. He's upstairs."

Caleb's shoulders relaxed a little bit. "That is good, thank you. Our friend Yasha here, she is…special in a way that would draw unnecessary attention to her in the wrong circumstances, and we are wondering if you might be able to procure for us some kind of garment that can…change its nature, as it were."

Pumat smiled at Yasha. "Knew there was something about you," he said. "You folks are all birds of a feather. Can you tell me more?"

Yasha let go of Jester's hand. "It will be easier if I show you," she said.

"Yash -" Beau began, but the air around Yasha did something complicated and with the sound of multiple seams popping at once, there was a large white wolf sitting next to Jester, tail thumping lightly. Jester began picking up the shreds of clothes as Pumat and the wolf stared at each other.

Finally, his eyes slid to them. "I see," he said. "That takes an awful lot of mending, I would guess."

"I don't mind!" Jester said brightly. "But sometimes it happens when she's outside and then she has to poof back into a human, and. Well." She held up the clothes.

"I see, I see," Pumat mused again. "I can't say I've had the pleasure to craft something for a lycanthrope before, but in theory it seems easy enough to push the right enchantments together to make it - oh, hello again." Pumat's eyes slid respectfully to the ceiling as Yasha re-formed back into a human.

"What?" she said to Beau and Caleb's faces. Jester giggled into the mended flannel in her arms.

"Nudity, Yash," said Beau. "Gym rules and how they apply other places." Her ears and neck were dark, and she could see Caleb in her periphery shifting quickly into problem solving mode as he began shrugging out of his long coat.

"Right," said Yasha. "I just thought…he's a friend."

Still looking at the ceiling, Pumat's brows came together somewhat. "Oh don't worry about that," he said. "I am a friend, but I've also grown accustomed to some of the manners you pick up in a city like this."

"Beau did mention," Yasha said. Caleb's coat only just covered her front, but it was enough. "My apologies." She chose her words carefully. "I am…re-adjusting." Beau pressed her shoulder just slightly against Yasha's and warmed a little when she pressed back in return.

"Nothing to apologize for," Pumat assured with a slow smile. He nodded to the clothes in Jester's hands. "Did you want me to enchant those in particular or craft you something?"

Yasha hesitated, looking perplexed. Jester turned to Pumat. "Is it possible to make it able to camouflage?"

Beau blinked. "You mean like go invisible?"

"That is different," Caleb murmured, "but not altogether a bad idea."

"It would take some doing to make someone of your size invisible," Pumat said apologetically. "Wolf or human, you wear a place when you step into it."

Yasha looked pleased.

"Maybe just a basic glamour?" Caleb suggested. He glanced at Yasha. "You said the cold does not bother you, yes?"

"It can," Yasha acknowledged, "but it takes far more for me to feel it than most people."

"I know what that's like," Jester piped up. "You could totally be fine with just a glamour."

"It would appear as though you are wearing clothes when you are not," Caleb explained.

Beau swore Yasha's pupils doubled in size. "That would solve so many things," she said. "Yes. I want that."

Pumat clapped his hands. "That's easy enough to do. I can make it something wearable, like a bracelet or a necklace if you like."

Beau felt Yasha stiffen beside her and quietly put her hand on her elbow through the coat's fabric.

"A ring, I think," Caleb said quickly. "If you are able."

Pumat clearly noticed the effect his words had on Yasha, but in his usual way he offered no comment. "It'll be better if it's something that can stay in the same place when she's a wolf," he explained. "Don't know many wolves that like having things between their toes."

As they continued negotiating, Beau gently tugged Yasha to the side. "Hey," she murmured, touching Yasha's cheek gently. Yasha blinked at her a couple of times. "It's okay," Beau said. "It's not gonna make you do anything. It's just there for keeping eyes off you if you need to be human and none of us are around to give you something to wear. We'll get a bracelet. No collar."

"Yeah," Yasha said faintly.

She hadn't heard Beau, not really. She took a deep breath. "Yash," she said. "It's something that will let you walk away if you want to."

Yasha seemed to refocus a bit on her, looking mildly confused. "Why would I do that?"

Beau swallowed the spark of joy and the accompanying smile and said, "I just want you to understand. This thing we're getting made for you will let you go wherever you need to in either form. You won't have to rely on anyone to cover you up or steal anything."

The light came back on in those mismatched eyes. "Oh," she said. "That's…you're right."

Beau smiled at her even as tendrils of anxiety began to rise in her mind. There was no part of her that wanted to keep Yasha against her will, or do anything really that wasn't directly linked to helping her be the best she could be. But now that she'd said it, the whispers were there.

They hadn't talked much about this, about Beau's abandonment issues. To be fair, they were better than they'd ever been. But Beau hadn't met someone like Yasha, for whom freedom was new enough that it might just call to her more strongly than a life with her new friends and Beau. She didn't know how that might shake out. It had only been four months since everything with Obann - four amazing, incredible months, but still not very many. Yasha had already explained to Beau that sometimes the urge to wander got strong enough that she would need to follow it, just for a while.

It had happened twice so far, and she'd come back both times. It wasn't rational to dwell on things changing.

And yet.

"Hey." Yasha's voice startled Beau from her thoughts, and Yasha's warm lips on her forehead sent a wave of contentment to beat back the whispers. "Thank you," she said sincerely. "Now I can carry you places without the backpack and the mending later."

Beau laughed a short, incredulous laugh because of course, of course the only thing Yasha was thinking about was how it could make the time they spent together better.

"Yeah, sure," she said gruffly. "S'nothing." She smiled around the lump in her throat. "Besides, you're technically paying."

Yasha's eyes hardened just a little. "There's a fairness to that," she said. "He kept me down, and now the money I earned him will pay for this." Beau remembered very suddenly that Yasha was capable of killing very strong people as a human and a wolf and swallowed. Yasha inhaled, and the intensity melted. "Let's go pay for this," she said, smiling softly. "And then we'll all go get coffee."

Beau huffed and touched her forehead to Yasha's shoulder through the coat. "Can't say no to that."

As she turned, Yasha's free hand reached out from the coat to take her hand. Beau risked a glance back and immediately heated from chest to ears at the affection in Yasha's face.

"Alright," she said to Pumat. "Tell us what we owe ya."

**Author's Note:**

> So basically: collars and other neck-oriented things bad, and being naked when you shift back into being a human forces you to rely on someone being nearby to help you out of an awkward situation - which made it hard for Yasha to do much in the way of unapproved socializing, before. Which was intentional because Obann was keeping her around to win dogfights.


End file.
